KANAB, Utah -- Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, spokesman of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation, was commemorated Friday in a southwestern Utah town that helped emblazon the image of a cowboy riding into the sunset on the American collective memory.

An American flag was laid across the chest of the man killed by Oregon State Police at a roadblock Jan. 26. He lay, dressed in white, in a pine casket built by his family. On the inside of the lid, surrounded by a barbed-wire border, were the words "One Cowboy's Stand for Freedom" -- the title of Finicum's blog. The outside of the casket was printed with his cattle brand. The handles were horseshoes bent to allow a handhold.

About 1,000 people attended the service at the Kanab Utah Kaibab Stake Center, part of the Mormon church.

"It's overwhelming all the support," said Thara Tenney, Finicum's daughter. "It shows how powerful our father is in his influence." Four people continue to occupy the refuge as part of a protest that began Jan. 2.

The memorial drew people from states as far away as Florida. Coz Cusolito and his wife, Marli, drove in from Elko, Nevada.

"I'm here to honor a man who stood up," he said. "I'm just one man among many."

Cusolito didn't agree with the occupation, but he supports the occupiers' opposition to what they see as the heavy-handedness of the federal government.

"In the end, what we have is a fine man dead and no progress," he said. "They'll own everything they now own. You can't fight the government. Well, you can, but you won't win."

Kanab, a town of about 4,400 people near the Arizona border, is famed as the backdrop for old Hollywood Westerns and surrounded by some of the most celebrated tracts of American public land -- Zion National Park, Vermilion Cliffs National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

He and his wife, Jeanette, had 11 children. Tenney, one of Finicum's daughters, said in an interview Friday that people arriving in Kanab were responding to the truth she said her father embodied. She said before her father left home, he reminded his children that some things, including freedom, are more valuable than one man's life.

Family members at the service focused less on Finicum's politics than on his faith, determination and a mischievous side.

"He could make a competition out of everything except for doing dishes," his brother Jody Finicum joked.

"The surest way to get LaVoy to do something is to tell him that he couldn't do it," he said.

His brothers remembered marathon games with rules that Finicum would continually bend. His children recalled playing board games and card games for hours, as well as many fights with plastic swords and paintballs.

Some of Finicum's favorite belongings were displayed in the lobby, including a saddle, cowboy boots with spurs and a stack of books about the Constitution and American history.

Members of his family said they took comfort in their belief that families are forever, united in the afterlife.

"He testified to the shortness of life and understood how this life is to prepare to meet God again," Tenney said. "Though he was defiled and mocked and eventually slain, he never, not once, abandoned his trust in the Lord."

With the standoff near Burns still underway, Utah authorities were on alert in the days leading up to the funeral.

The state's Department of Public Safety issued a bulletin to law enforcement dated Feb. 3, warning that while the Finicum family planned a "quiet" service, activists might use the event to "further their ideological beliefs."

"With the amount of support on social media which some domestic extremists involved in the funeral have received," the bulletin said, "law enforcement should remain cognizant of the likelihood of the presence of domestic extremists" in the area.

Friday's funeral was peaceful. Local law enforcement officers were visible during the viewing and memorial, as well as during the concert held in a middle school afterward.

Before the services began, some members of the crowd whispered about eagles that had been seen flying near an American flag and an unmarked plane that they called "typical FBI stuff."

Dan Black came from Kingman, Arizona. He didn't know Finicum, but is a fellow Mormon.

"I just wanted to feel the spirit here," he said.

Black said he holds a belief he considers to be in sync with Finicum's: that the U.S. Constitution was inspired by God.

"The founders bequeathed principles to us that are eternal," he said.

The incident that ended in Finicum's death came about on Jan. 26, a day before his 55th birthday.

State troopers and FBI agents had blocked U.S. 395 about 20 miles north of Burns after learning that most of the occupation leaders planned to go to a meeting in John Day, about 70 miles away along a winding and forested road.

Finicum was driving the first of two vehicles in the occupiers' convoy. After initially stopping and letting out a passenger, Finicum drove on and eventually hit a snowbank. He got out of his truck with his hands up and was shot by authorities, who said he appeared to be lowering his hands to reach for a weapon in his pocket. The FBI said Finicum had a loaded pistol. Another passenger, Ryan Bundy, was injured in the shooting.

One of them, Cox, is an acquaintance of Finicum's from Kanab. She told Rick Koerber, who runs a web-based talk show out of Northwest Utah, that Finicum screamed out the window, "Go ahead and shoot me. We're going to see the sheriff,'' before getting out of the driver's seat. "He was yelling, 'Just shoot me, just shoot me, just shoot me,' That's all he said. And then they did," she said in the interview.

Finicum's family has issued two statements about his death, which they call a murder. The most recent statement, issued through the family's attorney, accused the FBI and state police of a cover-up.

The family members said they believe Finicum left his white truck to draw fire away from the other three occupants, which included an 18-year-old girl. The FBI has been unwilling to release details of exactly how many times and where Finicum was shot.